Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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shivan128

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Welcome to the Japanese niche games deals and discussion thread!  Feel free to talk about local and import Japanese games here.  Our goal is to maintain a thread dedicated to active deals on niche games including RPGs, Visual Novels (VN), Shoot'em ups (Shmups), Musou, etc.  Also maintained are pre-orders for standard, limited and collector's edition games with key release dates provided.

I've wikified the thread to make it more friendly and open to others that can actively update with important information. You can find the wiki post directly below this one.

NOTE:  Please, leave the censorship discussion away from this thread.  It's common for japanese games to have questionable content outside of the country.  We want to keep discussions to the game itself and not about cultural/societal tolerance.

A message from Thorbahn:

Our CAG Japanese Niche Games Thread also has a community on PS4, where you can interact and game with other members of the thread.

Our moderators are: Draekon, Las_Hole, and Waffleswanton

You can basically friend any of our members, or any moderator, and you will be able to request to join the community under "Communities friends are in" tab, and a mod will approve your request.

You can also leave your PSN ID in the thread, saying you want to join, and we can invite you directly as well.

As always, have fun and enjoy your stay!

 
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Squarehard said:
How dare you like the comment.

Thanks to you, I just realized BB is cleareancing a bunch of other titles, and now i spent more money.

You monster!
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But you won't share what titles you found. Who's the real monster here Square? HMMM?

Starcrest said:
Anyone have an opinion to offer on Valthrian Arc?
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Everything I found on this game is that it's very bland and blah. Not worth the time or money if you already have a backlog of anything else to play.

I saw Injustice Legendary Edition had a price drop to 20 and .Hack Recode was clearanced to 16 as well before GCU, picked up both. Thanks Square
 
itzd4n said:
But you won't share what titles you found. Who's the real monster here Square? HMMM?


Everything I found on this game is that it's very bland and blah. Not worth the time or money if you already have a backlog of anything else to play.

I saw Injustice Legendary Edition had a price drop to 20 and .Hack Recode was clearanced to 16 as well before GCU, picked up both. Thanks Square
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giphy.gif


 
Squarehard said:
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of The New World PS4 $25.99

Dropped from $29.99 yesterday. Lowest it's been on Amazon directly.
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Is this a good game to jump in if I have not played since the PS3 versions I think Rorona or something.

I was waiting for a cheap price to pick up on of these on switch and $26 is a great price.

Does it have time limits like others?

Edit: I bought it since I had a $10 Rewards Cert.

So it was like $20. My GCU expired.

 
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umbry said:
Is this a good game to jump in if I have not played since the PS3 versions I think Rorona or something.

I was waiting for a cheap price to pick up on of these on switch and $26 is a great price.

Does it have time limits like others?

Edit: I bought it since I had a $10 Rewards Cert.

So it was like $20. My GCU expired.
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It's more of a town building game where all the alchemists from previous games at the time (No Lulua/Ryza) appear and run shops. Alchemists are industry that processes raw materials into goods for stores to sell.

 
umbry said:
Is this a good game to jump in if I have not played since the PS3 versions I think Rorona or something.
I was waiting for a cheap price to pick up on of these on switch and $26 is a great price.
Does it have time limits like others?

Edit: I bought it since I had a $10 Rewards Cert.
So it was like $20. My GCU expired.
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The answer is no. Return that and pick up Lulua, that’s the game you want.
 
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Hmm videogameplusca posted on facebook a bunch of new games they had in stock/back in stock.  One of which was sakura wars or something like that.  I must have missed that getting an english asian or whatever release on the switch as I don't recall that being mentioned before.

Ah my mistake it was super robot wars v not sakura wars.  

 
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gospelman said:
I'm finding AI: Somnium Files..
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So now that I'm finished I feel like I should give an update on the game after earlier sharing my positive first impressions.

[customspoiler='No spoilers on plot, just the game's structure']
As I initiially said, the game is really promising and polished in the first 40% of a playthrough. But just be warned that I found to the game to really drag from about 40% to 80% through. The game forces you to jump around and finish a number of the alternate endings only to get a very minor clue at the end of each. It was hard to keep track of what happened on a particular branch of the flowchart since the game locks you off and forces you to jump back and forth. The game also recycles the same environments and a lot of the same dialogue during this stretch. I almost put the game down but decided just to blow through it to see what the ending was like. Really glad I did. The last 20% of the game is well done and manages to connect the dots in a satisfying way. The quality of voice acting, which is solid the whole way, especially shines in the end. I just wish it wasn't such a drag to get there.

I don't play a ton of VN's so maybe this structure is common. I've spent most of my VN time with S;G (and it's spinoffs) as well as Danganronpa 1-2 (both series get easter egg references in this game). Overall I liked AI: Somnium Files better than D1&2 but less than S;G. Worth playing, but I wouldn't pay $60 for it. And the LE is pretty worthless, so my cag advice would be just get the SE or digital when it drops below $25. Shouldn't be too long.
[/customspoiler]
 
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Yeah all Nonary Games... games are all like that. You basically get a fat To Be Continued screen when you hit those doors and have to go elsewhere. They do that because at those points, there are spoilers and if you haven't yet taken the other routes, a lot will be spoiled for you and you wouldn't understand them anyway unless you have seen beyond a few of the other doors. I say doors because, literally, there are the #1-9 doors.
 
DarthPwner said:
Yeah all Nonary Games... games are all like that.
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I see. I did play Zero Escape some but not 999 or ZTD (backlogged). So I guess it wasn't enough for me to see the pattern / tradition that's continued into this new game.

In other news, I was checking up on my Cold Steel III CE order and it looks like a handful of units are back in stock on the NISA store.

 
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I need to replay that series. I played the first one on my PS TV. 

But wanna replay the series on PS4 now that it is on there.

Also Bought Trails in Sky 1-3 on PC but have yet to finish them.

And I own the Vita/PSP version too and part of me wishes they released them on Switch so I can play them again.

I have issues.

 
gospelman said:
I see. I did play Zero Escape some but not 999 or ZTD (backlogged). So I guess it wasn't enough for me to see the pattern / tradition that's continued into this new game.

In other news, I was checking up on my Cold Steel III CE order and it looks like a handful of units are back in stock on the NISA store.
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999 is the exception. Whatever choices you make are the route you are stuck with and some end abruptly idiotically. I was so annoyed when I missed a trigger for the route I was on and ended up in the true ending adjacent that stops abruptly for no damn reason. The other games make you go through the routes annoyingly but they let you go to whatever ones at least.

umbry said:
I need to replay that series. I played the first one on my PS TV.

But wanna replay the series on PS4 now that it is on there.

Also Bought Trails in Sky 1-3 on PC but have yet to finish them.

And I own the Vita/PSP version too and part of me wishes they released them on Switch so I can play them again.

I have issues.
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nitrosmob said:
I strongly prefer playing games on the Switch cause it's easy to pick up and put down so I understand.
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I'm with you guys there. It's a shame they haven't ported them to the switch yet. Odds are the escape room games could end up on there eventually. But I doubt sky or cold steel will anytime soon since they are so busy with localizations of the localized games.

 
shadowysea07 said:
999 is the exception. Whatever choices you make are the route you are stuck with and some end abruptly idiotically. I was so annoyed when I missed a trigger for the route I was on and ended up in the true ending adjacent that stops abruptly for no damn reason. The other games make you go through the routes annoyingly but they let you go to whatever ones at least.


I'm with you guys there. It's a shame they haven't ported them to the switch yet. Odds are the escape room games could end up on there eventually. But I doubt sky or cold steel will anytime soon since they are so busy with localizations of the localized games.
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999 forces you to play every route, before it will allow you to finish the true route.
 
The Dead Texan said:
Pretty sure that's VLR. You don't have to see every ending in 999, just the prerequisites for the True End.
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I will concede that the wikis indicate otherwise and it's been years since I played, but if I remember right,
there were 6 paths, three branching from the first split, and each of those then had two binary splits (3 * 2 * 2 = 12), so clearly something is wrong in my memory. Wiki seems to indicate they were all binary choices; but then how come door 4 can lead to 3, 7, or 8? It must have something to do with who came with you through the 4 door... but whatever.

When on the true path you eventually
reach the locked door that requires an eight digit code to be entered and Junpei doesn't know the code. To be continued …
By playing through one of the other paths (from the start)
you reach a dead end, and the bracelets tell you what the secret code is. The player (and the girl who can see all these future paths I don't remember her name) now knows the code...

So if you return to the start of the game (yet again, thank god for text skip) and take the true path again
it doesn't matter.. there's no prompt to enter the code; you're still stuck.

I was completely stuck, until in frustration I played through each branch in sequence order. It was only after the game had registered that I had played to the end of each path that something changed and
Junpei gets the flash of inspiration and knows what the code is supposed to be. I'm pretty sure the player didn't need to write it down and enter it, the story parts take care of it.

Looking on wikis they say
you only need to see the "safe ending" prior to the true ending, but i'm certain the code wasn't in the "safe ending" cause I'm certain they died [trapped] after the watches started flashing the code. And I know for certain that path with the code on it wasn't my final path before the true ending triggered. Maybe it was just a coincidence that my final path in sequence just happens to be the safe path. But if people say you can reach the true end in only two playthroughs (the safe path followed by the true path), maybe it's true, but I'm going to say the player would not know the code.

Also to clarify, when I say I went through in sequence order, I mean I did a depth first traversal of the paths, so
if the safe path requires taking the last choice every time there's a choice of which numbered door to go through, then I guess I just had some poor luck. At this point I don't even remember all the various paths, just that at the end on the true path, I had to solve an upside down sudoku as the final puzzle past the locked door. I think we had to open and close the 3ds to move it from the top screen to the bottom and it had been a long time since I'd seen that mechanic; which I had last seen in Trace Memory.

Edit: I'm going spoiler heavy even for a 10 year old game, because clearly some people haven't played it yet. Also, I still haven't started AI yet, so please... no spoilers for that one.

 
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Just curious, but need to part with some of my figures to make space for Switch, and wondering if anybody here would be interested since this seems like a good place.

2OEPasF.jpg


 
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Indeed.  I'm still not sure how I feel about the mobile ports of those games though.  Wish it was the originals with a fast forward button. 

 
Nothing- said:
Indeed. I'm still not sure how I feel about the mobile ports of those games though. Wish it was the originals with a fast forward button.
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After playing some of the 2D mode in DQ XI-S... and knowing this is Akira Toriyama's key art used in DQ I/II/III I'm cool with it. Is it exactly what I remember from the NES? No. But it's still DQ... and this will be a much better way for me to replay those games since I will be able to play the entire main series (other than X, of course) between my N3DS-XL and Switch. Ideally, I'd love the rest of the series to get ported over to the Switch just for the convenience.

 
Nothing- said:
Indeed. I'm still not sure how I feel about the mobile ports of those games though. Wish it was the originals with a fast forward button.
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It's unfortunate that it's the mobile versions, I agree. But I don't have the first the games at all and this is the only way for me to really get them physically. So I preordered it a while back as well.

 
nagpo said:
It's unfortunate that it's the mobile versions, I agree. But I don't have the first the games at all and this is the only way for me to really get them physically. So I preordered it a while back as well.
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Not willing to shell out 200 dollars?

https://www.estarland.com/product-description/NintendoNES/Dragon-Warrior/13315 16

https://www.estarland.com/product-description/NintendoNES/Dragon-Warrior-II/13316 60

https://www.estarland.com/product-description/NintendoNES/Dragon-Warrior-III/13317 70-130 (and not available)

Aside that, I'm also strongly tempted to import the switch physical version, but I have to be honest with myself, and admit that I will never actually replay these games.

 
Starcrest said:
Not willing to shell out 200 dollars?

https://www.estarland.com/product-description/NintendoNES/Dragon-Warrior/13315 16

https://www.estarland.com/product-description/NintendoNES/Dragon-Warrior-II/13316 60

https://www.estarland.com/product-description/NintendoNES/Dragon-Warrior-III/13317 70-130 (and not available)

Aside that, I'm also strongly tempted to import the switch physical version, but I have to be honest with myself, and admit that I will never actually replay these games.
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LOL I don't even have a nes

 
So since folks here often bitch and fume about Sony censoring their games (and no, that's not worth that level of hate), y'all SHOULD be raising hell ovet what Blizzard has and continues to do to oppress free voice.

Now THAT is f%#king censorship WORTH fighting and raising hell over.

I'm closing my Blizzard account as are all my friends. We're also never buying Blizzard software moving forward. Don't give a s@$% what they make or announce. Blizzard can burn in hell.
 
romeogbs19 said:
what Blizzard has and continues to do to oppress free voice.

Now THAT is f%#king censorship WORTH fighting and raising hell over.
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To be fair, freedom of speech is generally only guaranteed in public venues. A private individual or enterprise, in general, has every right to suppress speech they don’t agree with in their own private venues. A lot of people don’t seem to recognize the difference, and this behavior can be scummy, but it’s a right I generally endorse. (I mean, if I were running a store or forum and people started, I don’t know, endorsing genocide or arguing that meringue was acceptable on a lemon pie, I’d absolutely ban them from my establishment.)

That said I have zero idea what you’re even talking about, and the Japanese Niche Games thread seems like maybe the wrong place to bitch about Blizzard in the first place unless it has something to do with these nerds’ Overwatch waifus.
 
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romeogbs19 said:
So since folks here often bitch and fume about Sony censoring their games (and no, that's not worth that level of hate), y'all SHOULD be raising hell ovet what Blizzard has and continues to do to oppress free voice.

Now THAT is f%#king censorship WORTH fighting and raising hell over.

I'm closing my Blizzard account as are all my friends. We're also never buying Blizzard software moving forward. Don't give a s@$% what they make or announce. Blizzard can burn in hell.
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Fake outrage.

You don't play Blizzard games anyways. (or else you wouldn't be uninstalling battle.net)

If you protest political or social issues at your job they can fire you. It's also more likely to happen when you slam a business partner, investor, or sponsor. That's what LeBron was trying to say anyways. People ought to wisen up.

 
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nightc1 said:
I preordered the Asia version when it went live. It already has English so I'm fine if they don't bother a physical US version. if only they did an Asia English Switch release for Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2. That would have been nice.
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i thought the reason for no release was either it was 1+digital code or nintendo refused a world release for two carts in a package because they couldnt double down on their nintendo tax

 
I'm not sure I even own anything from Blizzard to boycott. I might have Blackthorne in my old big box pc games collection from back in the day when it released. I was a big fan of similar adventure platformers. If we are talking Activision/Blizzard, then yeah, that would hit some of my collection mainly due to older games.

That situation isn't really Japanese Niche enough for this thread, but I don't care if people boycott or don't. It's well known, I thought, that Activision/Blizzard is partially owned by Chinese company Tencent (who also owns part of Epic, Ubisoft, and other companies). Of course they are going to have to walk a fine line to keep gaming about gaming and not other issues. The only part of the punishment I thought was going overboard was firing people over it, unless they hand a hand in it.

If this bothers you enough to boycott them, then research all the game companies and see which other ones have ties to china... I'll save you the trouble, they pretty much all do. The game system you are playing was likely manufactured in china. I know Nintendo was moving Switch production to Vietnam, but even then I'd imagine most of the components are still being made in china. The media (cd/cart) that companies put games on was likely manufactured in china. China companies have investments in a lot of game developers. Your phone, tv, monitor, computer components, and a lot of the other stuff you own is most likely manufactured in china. It's really hard to be a gamer and avoid supporting China in some way.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from their outrage. It's all pretty disgusting what is going on in the world right now. Just take some time to decide how best to express that outrage. Blizzard isn't the only company that is going to walk the line and not weigh in on heavy subject matter.

bigstew said:
i thought the reason for no release was either it was 1+digital code or nintendo refused a world release for two carts in a package because they couldnt double down on their nintendo tax
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SE released them in Japan without requiring a download. Not sure why Nintendo would have any say in the matter unless they were handling the publishing. The games were already translated for PS4, so it shouldn't have required a lot of work to translate the Switch double pack. Maybe they didn't sell well enough on PS4 for SE to take the chance? Had they brought them over at least digital then I'd imagine there would have at least been a complete physical Asia/english release so even if they did a 1+Download version in NA that we'd have an alternate way to buy them similar to what happened with Final Fantasy X/X-2 which got a complete Asia/english option on one cart.

 
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Souffrir said:
That said I have zero idea what you’re even talking about, and the Japanese Niche Games thread seems like maybe the wrong place to bitch about Blizzard in the first place unless it has something to do with these nerds’ Overwatch waifus.
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Since you say you have "zero idea" what is being talked about, I'm not sure if you're kidding about the Overwatch waifus, but just in case you or someone else misssed it yes, Mei is now a symbol of the protests (FYI, Polygon link).
10ot7yocodr31.png

 
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Anyone else getting Mary Skelter 2 next week?

I was already interested, but that 20% off pre-order discount (down to $31.99) just sealed the deal for me.

That 10GB file size is kinda massive though, so I'll need to make some space on my memory card.

 
It includes the first game, too, is probably part of the file size.

Limited Run will be doing pre-orders for a physical edition at some point, if anyone prefers physical.

 
hostyl1 said:
Since you say you have "zero idea" what is being talked about, I'm not sure if you're kidding about the Overwatch waifus, but just in case you or someone else misssed it yes, Mei is now a symbol of the protests (FYI, Polygon link).
10ot7yocodr31.png
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I was serious saying I had no idea what he was talking about, I just figured that’d be the only way any of the regulars here would care.

Mei is not who I’d have expected for a statement, though to be fair, my only exposure to OW is SFM po—fanart.
 
dsman3717 said:
Anyone else getting Mary Skelter 2 next week?

I was already interested, but that 20% off pre-order discount (down to $31.99) just sealed the deal for me.
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Thanks for bringing this up. Been a bit busy lately to follow releases and such. But since I never got around to purchasing/playing the first game, $32 for both on eshop sounds good to me.

Unlikely to play it for a month or so though since I've been waiting years for ToCSIII, which releases on the same day.

 
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